Search This Blog

The pros and cons of Swiss living

Hooray for new link ups!! Michelle over at The American Resident has started a link up called "Where I live." It's not just for us silly expats either. It's about loving where you live and wanting to share it with the world. I'm a day late with my post but better late than never right?

This weeks prompt is "the dark sides of where you live or have lived, but the one condition of this linky is to put a positive spin on your posts. Feel free to vent about the bad stuff this week, but match each negative with a contrasting positive!"

I know most people are shocked to find out that sometimes living in the land of chocolate and scary efficiency isn't all it's cracked up to be.

There are pros and cons to living basically any where in the world and Switzerland is no exception.

Con: Switzerland is EXPENSIVE! Let me throw some numbers at you. Compared to Canada the price of rent is 81% higher. The cost of groceries is 47% higher. The cost of eating out is 64% higher. For a family of three to go to McDonald's it can cost upwards of 30 or 40 Swiss Francs (that's 32 to 42 Canadian dollars.) Right after we got here I spent close to 50 francs on 4 small steaks. Let me just point out this is a mistake I have never repeated.

Pro: I can budget like nobodies business now. I've got Gail Vaz-Oxlades jar system down to a science.We spend very little on non-essentials. Hell we don't even own a microwave (to me it's a non-essential item.) We eat incredibly healthy because crappy food is expensive. We operate almost completely with cash now so we can keep better track of our spending. And I've become very good at beating all the elderly ladies who grocery shop in the afternoons to the 50% off meat.

Con: Everything that isn't a museum, place to eat or in the train station is closed on Sundays. As someone who ran a lot of errands on Sundays when we lived in Canada this really really bugged me when we first got here. We made a lot of trips to the train station in those first few weeks thanks to my lack of remembering things aren't open on Sundays.

Pro: Wow a whole day set aside to relax and not worry about getting stuff done, spending time with friends and family, checking out museums and other cool life enriching experiences!! Where has this been all my life?!

Con: I can't get any of the following items here; cheerios, brown sugar, Sailor Jerry's rum, mint chocolate anything that isn't an after 8, twizzlers, and big jars of peanut butter.

Pro: They do have; chocolate that is better than toblerone and lindt (we give that to tourists apparently), 450 varieties of cheese, 200 kinds of bread, amazing/cheap local beer, cheap wine and a focus on eating seasonally and locally that should be an example for the rest of the world.

Con: There is a HUGE bias against foreigner. So it can be hard to find apartments if you don't go through a rental agency. It can be hard to find jobs if you're a trailing spouse like me either because your of your permit status or hiring quotas. It can be hard to meet locals (especially if you don't have kids or a dog or both.) I've had friends who have had their children told certain kids from school weren't allowed to play with them because they weren't Swiss. "Come from aways" are seen as highly suspect.

Pro: Not ALL the Swiss are bias towards foreigners some of them are genuinely excited to meet a native English speaker (someone to practice their English with.) Just like biases in other places it's a few bad apples ruining it for everyone else. But when you first get here you're inundated with horror stories. It also helps we're Canadian which means universally people think we're pretty okay (no one has a strong opinion about us...phew.) And I speak German so I'm seen as someone who is trying to integrate.

So it's not all bad. It's not all great either but you do tend to turn the stumbling blocks into stepping stones.

Very interesting. A friend lived in Zurich once and I remember him having some of the same complaints, especially the bias against 'auslanders'. But what a beautiful country to live in at the same time.

I sooo hear you on the Sunday thing, and on the meeting people thing too! I have some friends who just moved to Thailand for a year to teach and they've already met a bunch of cool people (also foreigners) because they're living dorm style, and I can't help but be super jealous because I've been her for 7 months and the friends pool is oh so dry. Plus, we're childless cat people. But eh, whaddya do? Like you said, at least there's cheese and chocolate?

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

I spent much of the day I found out my Oma passed away not knowing if I could get back to Canada in time for the funeral. I started doing some mental math with dates and over and over again with the various scenarios I came up with I ended up with, "I don't think I could make it on time." When my paternal Oma passed away the choice was made for me. Financially we couldn't make it work. We had just spent a whole lot of money moving overseas so when she passed away 6 months later I had no choice. I had to stay here.
This time I had a choice for the most part.
Late Saturday night is when we found out when the funeral was happening.
Thursday.
It was Saturday night.
We could make this happen.
Johnathan made all the travel plans. There was 1 seat left on the flight from Zurich to Iceland and my butt was going to be in it. This meant I was going on my own. Johnathan was staying behind.
I will admit the very thought of making the trip by myself, then carrying my Oma'…

I joined roller derby because I was lost. I didn't have anything that was just mine. I didn't have anything that connected with me and that made me super proud of myself. I in my mid 20's and wanted more out of life and I wanted a challenge. I needed a challenge. Roller derby found me when I needed it most. It broke me down in some of the most amazing and humbling ways but in turn it built me back up in to a much better person. Derby made me a better wife, a better friend (despite all the times I couldn't do things because of derby), a better employee, a better daughter and a better advocate for myself. Roller derby drew a line through my life, I was consistently caught between giving up completely and seeing how much more I could take.
Turns out I can take a lot.
I retired a year ago.
8.5 years of derby came to an end one night last September during my teams Annual General Meeting. I was surrounded by my beloved team mates. My long suffering derby widow/husband and…